Organization (or, the never-ending journey)

It is amazing how much damage a yarn stash can do to your organization. Really! We have been in our house for a year, and organizing my little bedroom studio has been…interesting. It started out with a lighting issue, two looms, and no stash at all. Over the past year, it has expanded to house many more looms and fiber arts books and yarn, yarn, and more yarn!!!

In my studio, there is a big, industrial six-shelf metal bookcase, the kind you find in a garage. One shelf holds most of my beadwork things, two shelves hold my fiber art and beading books. The rest are loaded with cones and balls of yarn! Then there are five big plastic tubs also filled to the brim with more yarn, and another full of embroidery floss! And two more tubs that are empty as yet, waiting for…yes, you’ve got it: still more yarn!

As stashes go, I’ve seen some that are much larger than mine, but I’m catching up fast! When I have nothing to do (which admittedly, isn’t often) and nowhere I have to be, I find myself in either Green Valley Weavers and Knitters or in Yarn Outlet, both of which are quite dangerous if I have money in hand! Then, of course, there is Craigslist, which has also been the source of quite a bit of yarn.

Every time I think I have my little studio completely organized, except for my desk, more yarn appears in there. Or more tools. I have a lust for tools. Especially wooden tools. Especially well-made wooden tools. Oddly enough, it’s the big tools that are easy to organize. The looms all have their places in the studio. It’s the little things, like shuttles, weaving tablets, knitting needles, crochet hooks, those all needed homes. So I bought a couple of small, desktop, plastic three-drawer organizers for those. It seems to be coming together fairly well. Though I have to wonder what I’m going to do with all my stained glass tools once this semester is over!

I’ve also started thinking about a folding floor loom like the Schacht Mighty Wolf. Thinking only; I don’t have the money for one right now! Yeah, I know, a floor loom fell into the category of “never” not too long ago, but Inara, the Flip, on her stand takes up the same amount of space as the Wolf would, so really, I can’t say I have no room for one. And there’s always room in my heart for another loom!